Different track and field distances test unique attributes. The shorter 100m and 200m races are fast and exhilarating. We are awestruck by the speed burst of the sprinters. Even the relay races are fun to watch while the hurdle races add a different element of difficulty. Still, none of them tests endurance like the 1000m, 5000m, and marathon races. It’s not about express speed, the winner is one who can go all the way – literally.

Such a long-distance specialist is Sifan Hassan. The 31-year-old Dutch has won gold medals in 1500m, 3000m, 5000m, 10000m, and marathon races across various competitions, ranging from the Olympics to World Championships. Having been bestowed with a major honor a month ago, the runner has made a huge announcement that will get her fans excited.

Familiar roads for the track and field queen

Siffan Hasan will be running in the 2025 London Marathon. Taking to Twitter (now X), the track and field legend posted a video on her account with the caption “London, I’m back.” The video is classily edited to show the streets of London, fused with snippets of her previous historic London marathon participation, where she not only made her marathon debut but also finished as the winner.

After she won the 2023 marathon in London, Sifan expressed to The Guardian how she couldn’t believe she completed the race, let alone win it. In fact, the morning of the race, she was contemplating her choices: “I was telling myself I was stupid to run a marathon.” But overcoming pain and avoiding being taken out by a bike, Sifan persevered.

And 2 years later she sounds quite different: “London is also where I learned to be patient, to trust myself, and to keep pushing even when it feels impossible. It is a place where I grew, not just as an athlete, but as a person.”

As always, it will be a challenge for her, but she will try to win because that drives her. That drive was the reason she pipped the American superstar hurdler, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, to win the most prestigious track and field award.

Why was the Olympics win special for the track and field star?

Sifan Hassan was named the women’s World Athlete of the Year 2024 at the Word Athletics Awards in Monaco. To put it in perspective, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone had won the gold medals in the 400m hurdles and the 4×400 relay races of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Then what did Sifan do that was so exceptional, so significant?

Well, for starters, she did something in 2024 that no woman had ever done in the Olympics, and no person had achieved a similar feat since 1952. What we are talking about is her claiming a medal in each of the 5000m, 10000m and marathon races in the same Olympics. Sifan got the bronze medals in the 5000m and 10000m races, before conquering the Paris Olympics marathon to win the gold.

She explained to World Athletics how specific her preparations were for the Paris Olympics marathon: “I looked at the Paris course. I started really practising to run 600 metres up, then 800 metres down…”

The Paris marathon had a stretch that involved a long climb followed by another steep rise, after which immediately came a long, steep journey downhill. Although her coach didn’t understand her training methods, Sifan knew what she was doing. All her training paid off during the race: “When it came to the hill … I was almost walking. Everybody was running, but I thought: ‘I’m going to catch you because this downhill will be crazy’. I knew how hard it would be. And because of the practice, it made it less hard…”

Still, her Olympic marathon victory was a Herculean feat, especially when you take into consideration the circumstances. The win came just mere 37 hours after she had claimed the bronze medal in the 10000 m race and 6 days after her 5000m bronze win. She was sleep-deprived from doing the interviews and attending the medal ceremonies for the 10000m race. Truly makes you wonder how did she do it.

It was a near-impossible job, the marathon. And once again, she felt she made the wrong choice, doing the 10000m race before the marathon: “Then before the race, I looked at everybody and how fresh they were. And I looked terrible! … I tried talking to myself then, getting ready to use my brain to run.” Obviously, the rest is history and quite dramatic.

Sifan Hassan is a remarkable woman. The only way to describe her would be sui generis. She is always curious and pushes herself to see whether she can do it. She lives for these impossible moments, and that has brought her back to the place where she tasted her first marathon success.